AN: Here's the third chapter guys :) This is only up already because of the nice PMs I got with questions and compliments. So sweet! Review numbers still aren't quite up there to what I'd like, but I'll take it. Enjoy chapter 3 ;)

Leah was in that state where you're half awake and half asleep and you can hear what's going on around you, and sometimes you can see, and your thoughts are all so jumbled up they could only make sense to you right then as you are. She could hear birds singing from the trees outside her bedroom window, but could only guess they wouldn't be there for long because the room had that dingy quality to it; the kind of scene where everything's grey and you just knew it was either raining or going to rain outside.

She sighed softly, turning onto her stomach and grabbing her bed covers, pulling them over herself eagerly. It wasn't like she was that cold; it was more or less the fact that she felt as secure in her bed as she did when she was swimming. It was warm and soft and always so peaceful.

She'd memorized it well; she spent just as much time curled up in there when Sam left her as she did in the sea.

Leah wished in her head that she could stay there forever. She wouldn't have to hide so much anymore if she just didn't have to deal with life being so intrusive. Nowadays she barely got to see her bed; it was patrol this, patrol that, bitching about this, bitching about that, Cullens something er other.

She truly was tired of it and could only wish things would go back to being simple again. If only she could stay here forever-

More damn knocking. Leah almost felt like she could cry (not literally) at the sound of the familiar loud rapping on the door. She growled instead.

"Lee! Get the hell up, we're all goin' to Old Quil's to meet that new pack!" Seth's too-loud voice said. Leah cringed before opening her eyes to the exact grey scene she'd thought about in her head. Had more than a day already passed? Really? It felt like it was only last night it was Jake who'd bothered her with his knocking...

But no; this was Leah's second day in bed. She remembered now; said she hadn't been feeling well as an excuse to get out of patrol the next morning and used it again that night. Sneaky yes, but when you gotta sleep you gotta sleep. Even the bitch needed her beauty sleep.

She winced again and ran a hand through her bed-head black hair as Seth banged on her door once again.

"LEAH!"

She looked around the dingy room before pushing herself out of bed and over to the door.

Looked like the fun was over.

"Yeah, you go ahead. I'll be there in like ten." She grumbled, opening the door for about three seconds before slamming it in her brother's face again. She heard her brother mumble something along the lines of 'lazy asshole' before his footsteps cued his retreating back down the stairs.

Leah took a deep, depressed breath before grabbing her hair brush, her iPod, and shoving on some random clothes. It was time to live again.

The boys had left without her like she'd told Seth, so Leah had to jog for ten minutes to catch up to them. Once she slowed to a stop she walked beside the seven, Jake and Seth the only ones sensible enough to wear a shirt instead of just torn jeans. She rolled her eyes at it; she wasn't exactly dressed to impress either (red tee and a faded out jean miniskirt), but she at least had some decency. None of them could really be bothered to wear too many clothes, it was a pain in the ass when you had to phase quickly and they got ruined. None of them owned anything overly expensive either.

The only thing Leah wore that was remotely of worth was the necklace. But she wasn't about to let that be seen; so she tucked the jewel down under the neckline of her shirt, feeling the cool gem nestle in the hollows between her breats and even wore a bra to further disguise it. Only the thin gold chain was visible, and her long wavy hair took care of that quite well.

"So what else did Old Quil say about this pack?" Jared asked, stretching his impressive muscles.

"Nothin' really. Said there's four guys and only one of 'em has an imprint that's taggin' along. They're Cree, apparently from far up north across the Canadian border," Jake shrugged.

"Hmm," Embry murmured, "Know any of their ages?"

"Apparently they're all pretty tight to us. Their Alpha's nineteen, I don't know how old the chick is but two of the other guys are eighteen and the last one's seventeen." Sam just nodded at Jacob's words, rerunning legends Old Quil, Harry and Billy had told him in his head. He couldn't remember mentions of any other packs ever seeing the light of day.

"Hopefully this alliance thing will be a go," Seth said, forever the optimist. "It's nice to know we're not the only ones around."

Paul sighed and cracked his knuckles.

"Yeah I guess, but we're obviously the bigger pack so that makes us stronger than them." Leah rolled her eyes.

"Size isn't everything, you douchebag." She spat, instantly regretting it. Paul snarled at her and scoffed.

"Pretty sure it is to you. All chicks like big ones don't they?" He smirked, accepting Quil and Embry's chuckles as fellow 'fuck-you's to Leah and eyeing the shewolf, waiting for the coming explosion.

Leah rolled her eyes. ..Saw another opportunity.

"I wouldn't know." She said, walking faster ahead of them. "I've never had a huge one."

She felt like she should be, but couldn't be prideful about the comment as she heard the footsteps all stop behind her and could practically feel Sam's eyes boring holes into her back. Paul hissed in pain.

"Sorry Sam, my man."

The Alpha just sighed heavily and was the first one to start walking again. He was so used to this by now. Leah, however, was almost feeling the borders of unknown territory. She really must be getting over Sam. She almost didn't see fun in hurting him anymore. What she said was a lie anyway. She remembered her first time with Sam. Chanting curse words in her head to try and numb herself to the pain of him stretching her, making herself stare into Sam's gorgeous eyes and hearing herself tell him it didn't hurt when it fucking did.

Leah shook her head out of the memory and pulled open the door of Old Quil's small cabin. Hearing his warm old voice murmur hello, she had to force herself to smile weakly at him and nod. She couldn't be cuntly to Old Quil. It was like trying to be mean to your grandmother; it just didn't seem right. The rest of the boys walked in a second later and they all took their usual places once again. It was sad that they all spent so much time out of their own houses they had rehearsed spots for nearly every person's house in La Push.

"I'm glad to see so much enthusiasm for this group's visit." Old Quil smiled, the leadership and pride outstanding in his voice. His eyes shone against his brown crinkled skin, the only reminder of his age. The boys greeted Old Quil friendly and Sam soon shook hands and hugged the elder, exchanging conversation about recent pack happenings and this and that about the newcomers, other random things Leah found no interest in. With a sigh, she looked around the room and found herself to be the only one not engaged in some form of chitchat.

Well, that was her usual place, wasn't it? It was sad that she had learned to take solace in that.

Only a couple minutes after though, there was a low knock on Old Quil's door and once his grandson opened it, there stood five faces who would hold places in Leah's dreams and memories forever.

She could only assume the Alpha was the first one to step inside; he was tall, maybe the same height or even the least bit taller than Sam who was actually pretty huge. His skin was light, almost as light as her own and his lips were thin but set into a hard line. His hair was a little long, to his chin. He didn't look... Entirely unpleasant, but in Leah's eyes, everyone just failed in comparison to her boys.

Behind the leader were three other guys, one pretty lanky but Leah could tell he could probably give her a run in the speed department. His hair was cropped to a skull trim, but his eyes were surprisingly soft like they didn't belong in his hard-set face. The last man, a little shorter than the other two was an overall average kid, not totally built but not skinny and his hair was cut boyishly almost like her brother's. The last one was hand in hand with a girl, and they both seemed so perfectly matched it was almost unreal. In a creepy, twisted little way because those two seemed related. Their hair was the same shade of dark oak and their skin was dark too, but upon seeing the others in the room they both flashed brilliant white smiles. Easy going, friendly.

Almost.

"I am glad to see you made the journey unscathed." Old Quil said, opening his arms to invite the five into his home. They all nodded their thanks. The Alpha with the chin-length hair was the first to step forward and place his hand into the Quileute elder's.

"You've honoured us by inviting us into your home, sir. We're pleased to make your acquaintance. My name is Karl Flying Arrow; I'm the Alpha of this pack." His eyes roamed over the other patrons in the room, and they landed on Leah.

He looked up and down before a body obstructed his view.

Leah was thankful as Sam held out his hand as well.

"Sam Uley. I'm one of the Alpha's of this Quileute pack and we're very glad to have you with us. Please make yourselves comfortable and introduce yourselves. My brothers and sister will do the same."

Oh wow. Sam had actually acknowledged her instead of just saying brothers. That was a new one. He usually fucked that up alot, actually. Always took her a reminding growl to set him straight, but over the last month or so Leah had let the slip-up go by unpunished. It was just Sam's wishful thinking, after all.

"Thank you. I'd like you to meet the rest of my pack." The Alpha, Karl, stepped aside then and took a seat on the only empty couch left in Old Quil's house. The one with the buzz cut nodded his head, his arms crossed. But he flashed a smile non-the-less.

"My name's Brandon Frazer, I'm the Beta. Nice to meet you guys." He held out a pale hand that Sam warmly took, handing out a friendly shake. Jake grinned and shook the guys hand as well.

"I'm Jacob Black. I'm the second Alpha of the pack." Upon seeing the look on Brandon's face, Jake just smirked. "Don't ask; long story." Brandon seemed to accept the answer, shown in his smile-and-nod. Leah sighed, watched the rest of the introductions take place. The third guy was a Nathan Cordero; And the couple was Keith Towhan and a Janice Muller; imprintees. She knew the rest of her pack would have to make small-talk hello's now and she wasn't so likened to announcing her name and drawing attention to herself like that, rude or not.

It was just so... Gay.

"..Embry Call." More hand shaking and then Leah felt Jake's eyes scan her up and down, waiting for her to make the move.

She wasn't gonna.

There was a sigh. "Her name's Leah." Seth said.

"I can speak for myself!" She spat. The new pack raised their eyebrows. Smirking they turned to each other while the chick giggled. Yeah, Leah really didn't like them.

"So who's imprint are you?" Keith asked her, his curious eyes dancing around over every guy in the room from Sam and Jake's pack, like he expected one of them to jump up with a grin and a raised hand. (She wished.)

".." Leah wasn't about to elaborate on that. There was a moment of silence; then of course Sammy the Great had to speak up.

"She doesn't have an imprint... She's a shifter, just like the rest of us." You could've sworn you could hear jaws hitting the floor.

Karl, the Alpha, stood up from the table and in a few quick, vicarious steps he was in front of Leah, looking down at her sitting in the loveseat. It was like some terrifying magnetic pull and her eyes met his. No, she didn't imprint; what Leah felt was not admiration or love.

Her entire body froze the moment his brown eyes locked onto her's. Leah felt someone walk over her grave.

"You... You're a female shifter." He hesitantly spoke, eyes not wide but not un-surprised either.

"..Yeah." She muttered, gulping.

Jake caught it, and when the Alpha flicked his eyes up to Sam he saw his other Alpha had noticed it too. Jake stood up, planting a hand on Karl's shoulder and 'always by accident' shoved him a little backward from his previous-Beta. Leah's eyes dropped to the floor as soon as the eye contact broke.

"Yeah, we know it's rare, or.. Never happened before, but it's happened here so we try not to think much of it." Jacob said, nodding once curtly before sitting back down. Karl returned his gaze to the female wolf again though.

"How... Interesting." His tone of voice gave Sam a chill and he coughed to hide a growl. He knew this guy was making Leah uncomfortable.

"It really is amazing, isn't it Keith? Brandon?" Janice spoke up, clutching the cup of coffee in both her hands as her intense gaze focused on Leah as well.

Leah grit her teeth. What the fuck was this?? Had she grown an extra head or something?? Yes, she was a female shifter, no need to stare at her like she belonged in some sideshow attraction...

..Or like she was something they could cut up and eat.

"Oh I think it's awesome." Brandon smirked, Leah thought, maybe a smile he intended to be charming but came out bone-chilling instead. Nathan nodded as well.

"Strange.. But it's pretty cool, gotta say."

"Well I'm glad you think so." Leah let the sauce slip, seeing Paul roll his eyes as her attitude suddenly seemed resurrected. Leah looked down and was about to sigh before she felt a familiar hot hand rest gently on her shoulder. Looking up through her dark bangs, it was Sam, and his gaze was almost heated, almost feral and it was centered on Karl.

"It was very nice meeting another pack, and I'm glad we've agreed to form an alliance with you if the need should ever come. But forgive me for sounding rude, this pack has other needs to attend to and I mean what kind of protectors would we be if we spend the whole time talking?"

".."Leah was silent at the odd tone in Sam's voice. His hand on her shoulder.. Just that demure touch sent warm spirals into Leah's gut as she closed her eyes at the missed sensation.

The Cree pack bid their goodbyes; explained where they were staying (a cabin on some no-name street a few miles across the Canadian border) and left.

So that was that. Sadly, as soon as they'd made their retreat so did Sam's hand; Leah found herself opening her eyes and feeling sadder than she had all week.

-

Sam shut his house door behind him and let out a groan as he stretched. It was nice, he had to admit, to have more wolves, but those guys.. The way they stalked Leah with their eyes and the way they were so damn interested was a little more than Sam had anticipated.

He knew they were going to be a little surprised; She was the only female shapeshifter ever, his ex was sure to warrant at least a little extra attention, right?...

Maybe wrong. Maybe it was just the way they spoke. The strange, ominous tones in their voices that made it seem like she was something to eat, something to claim. And even then they'd barely said a few words. That thought sent a shiver down Sam's spine and he spun quickly, flinging his cut-offs across the room with a snarl.

He saw Emily step out of their bedroom with a cocked eyebrow.

"..I'm sorry babe, I'm just so damn tired." Sam groaned, scrubbing a hand down over his face.

See, this was the sort of thinking he wished he could banish from his mind. This cursed jealousy, these barren instincts that seemed to kick up a notch every time Leah was around. He hated it.

..Or did he?

His fiancé smiled a worn, but soft little smile. "Really? If you want to, you can go right to bed, but.. I made you muffins, and I was hoping we could talk.." Her quiet voice filled the air in the strangely-empty-feeling house.

Sam's eyes met her's and he sighed.

"Of course we can talk Em, anything you want. What's wrong??" How could he be possibly thinking that he didn't want to talk???

"Well..." Those kind hazel eyes he'd loved the moment he'd seen them flicked from left to right in no particular hurry, and then she bent down to pick up his discarded pants. "It's mostly about you, actually.."

He gulped. Not now. He wasn't in the mood to go through the talk tonight. Not now. He didn't have an excuse prepared this time..

"You never called last night yah know.." Sam sighed deeply, and once more he scrubbed his hands down over his face and this time he felt sweat beads on his forehead; could feel that crease there.

"I know.. I'm sorry babe. " Why hadn't he called her?... That's right.. He'd spent from 8 PM to 1 AM, sketching around outside the Clearwater household. He'd been keeping his eye on a certain black window, one where the light never came on and he found himself wondering how a person could sleep so much. Sam remembered her calling Jared and telling him she was gonna skip out on patrol because she hadn't been feeling well, but to be honest he didn't believe her.

(Really. Who would believe Leah Clearwater these days about something like that?)

Still.. That little piece of info irked him and sent him crawling to her house to spend a night squatting in moss groves, patiently waiting for a sign that she was okay like her walking past her window, blasting music or seeing her sneak out to go for a swim.

But there was nothing. Her light was out the whole time, the room seemed... It seemed like death.

"I just forgot.. It's just that there's been a lot of research, a lot of stuff we had to go through for preparation to meet the new pack. I'm sorry." He reached out his hot arms, and enveloped Emily in a hug. He sighed softly into her shoulder, that familiar, downy cotton scent of her hair relaxing. Sam hoped all this was just a phase. He needed it all to be a phase, because... He didn't really wanna let Emily go. He did love her..

Right? How else could what he was doing that moment feel so perfect?? Like it was a natural reflex, not a gesture. It was a lifestyle. Knowing he was falling back into love with Leah would shake the hell out of that.

"Ohh..." She rubbed a hand up and down his back, her perfectly manicured fingers knowing just where to rub to work out tension. "I was just a little worried about you.. I mean, you know I go to bed at 11:30 and I woke up to go to the bathroom later and you still weren't home, so..."

The tone in her voice hurt Sam. It was... It was fear, shaking Emily's normally so calm, soft voice. It was still soft; maybe too quiet for Sam. He would've liked to see her get angry, maybe drop a curse worse or two. But no. She was perfect Emily; always forgiving to him, always understanding even when basic instinct told her not to be because she believed he was perfect too.

Sam could not tell her where he'd been last night. Never. He didn't like her voice sounding like this. Leah's sounded the same way when he'd told her he was leaving her.

"It was a late night. I'm sorry babe, really." He brushed her neck with his lips, kissing the soft skin and gently petting her hair. "It won't happen again." He managed a small, reassuring smile when he saw her eyes light up the way they usually did when he got home. "It's been a boring pack month y'know, I'm sorta looking for any excuse to do some extra work or patrols." She nodded and flashed him a toothy smile.

"My hard-working man. God, I love you." This time Emily's hand dipped lower than the middle of his back, actually stopping with a brush of her finger over his ass-crack before she latched onto his neck gently, sucking at the salty skin there. He couldn't help the groan that escaped his throat when she did that and his hand went to her own ass out of reflex. There was that heat, that feral part of the wolf that wanted to escape every time a girl used that tone of voice. Especially Emily or-

The duo made it to the bedroom quicker than they'd planned.

But it still scared Sam how this time it didn't feel right; and when she climbed atop him to release some of her energy, he felt like pushing her off.

-

Leah sat on the couch and hadn't moved for nearly two hours. Jake was sitting on the floor beside Seth, doing their usual; Halo on ps3. Every now and then when Seth would pause to eat a few chips or chug another can of soda, Jake would find himself looking back at her and she hadn't moved at all. Her eyes were staring straight ahead, seemingly on the game but Jacob knew Leah wasn't watching.

"Hey... Leah, you okay?"

Her eyes flew to him as he snapped her out of her thoughts and she scoffed.

"What is it with you and asking me if I'm okay?" She said. For some reason, Jacob found that there was less bite behind her words than she'd intended. How... very odd.

He cocked an eyebrow. And then he couldn't stop himself. Jacob saw his own hand move for her's on her lap.

Leah stood up before he could make it and stepped over Jake and her brother who too was looking quite confused.

"Well Jake, as okay as I would be if you weren't spending the night over here again? No." This time the bitch was back in full swing and what the holy fuck was Jake thinking for attempting to hold her hand and telling her she could talk to him about anything?

Jesus, women!

Seth just sighed. Jake huffed impatiently and rolled his eyes.

"Bitch."

Leah's back was already turned and she was halfway up the stairs by then, but she'd still heard him.